Comparison between Planting and Sowing as Forms of Amaranthus (Amaranthus spp.) Propagation and Investigation of Different Seeding Depths

Abstract

Amaranth is a broad leaf pseudocereal native to South and Central America and can be used as a source of high protein grain, as a leafy vegetable and has the potential to grow as fodder. The objective of this work was to evaluate some characteristics of amaranth agronomic interest (Amaranthus spp), as the best way of propagation of the crop, whether by planting of seedlings or direct seeding, and also to determine the most suitable depth of sowing of amaranth. Three treatments were established to conduct the first experiment, seedling versus no-tillage using the BRS-Alegria variety: the first (T1) was the planting of seedlings with 15 days old, previously produced in a greenhouse, on the day of establishment of the experiment in the beds; the second (T2) was the direct sowing in the soil on the day of establishment of the experiment in the beds; and the third (T3) was the transplanting of surplus seedlings from the first treatment, after two weeks of establishment of the experiment in the beds. The T1 treatment was the one that presented the best performance in the attributes of lap diameter and dry mass of plants, being not different, only, at plant height, in relation to T2 treatment. The treatments T2 and T3 presented the same performance for all attributes studied. The second experiment was carried out with the objective of evaluating the best sowing depth for the Amaranthus varieties: BRS-Alegria, Diócus, Princes, Verde (Amaranthus cruentus) and Inca (Amaranthus caudatus), under zero millimeters soil), five millimeters, and ten millimeters deep. The BRS - Alegria, Verde and Diócus varieties showed the best results when tested at 0, 5 and 10mm depth, with the average of plants emerged at 15 days after sowing, of 71.4; 65.9 and 61.0 respectively. The worst results were found in the Princes and Inca varieties, with average values of emerged plants of 51.3 and 47.2, respectively. As for the seeding depths, the best were 10 and 5 mm, with plants emerged after 15 days, of 86.9 and 77.9, respectively. The worst result was for the 0mm depth with an average of 13.3 emerged plants.

Agronomic performance of grain amaranth in the semi-arid region as a function of the planting arrangement

“…The seeds were manually sown in plastic trays containing 200 cells each, using up to four seeds per cell, sown no deeper than 2 cm, according to the recommendation by Santos et al (2019). This approach was used in this study to ensure that the plant spacings were correctly arranged in the field.…”

Effect of soil type and sowing depth on the germination and early growth of two grain amaranth cultivars

“…In previous studies (Da Santos et al, 2019;Da Silva et al, 2019), it has been observed that the A. caudatus Inca has faster growth and completes its productive cycle in a shorter time than A. cruentus. As presented in Section 2, we observed that the A. caudatus Inca seed had superior weight (weighing 0.8 g against 0.6 g from A. cruentus).…”

“…Concerning grain amaranth's germination and emergence, Bavec and Mlakar (2002) reported an average of 48% PLSE for A. caudatus and 31% PLSE for A. cruentus when evaluating five sowing depths (0, 5, 15, 30, and 45 mm) and three soil types (loam, sandy loam, and sand). Santos et al (2019) evaluating three sowing depths (0, 5, and 10 mm) obtained an average of 71% emergence for A. cruentus BRS Alegria and 47% emergence for A. caudatus Inca, and the recommended sowing depth was 10 mm.…”

“…Santos et al. (2019) evaluating three sowing depths (0, 5, and 10 mm) obtained an average of 71% emergence for A. cruentus BRS Alegria and 47% emergence for A. caudatus Inca, and the recommended sowing depth was 10 mm.…”

“…Under shallow sowing (≤5 mm) conditions, amaranth germination might be inhibited by excessive light, especially under low air temperature conditions (Gutterman et al., 1992; Rodrigues et al., 2016). However, because of the low reserves content in its seeds, sowing depth must not be deeper than 20 mm (Santos et al., 2019).…”